Freedom: A Synth's Tale
by TheLoneAssassin
Summary: From unconsciously doing the bidding of its masters at the Institute to captured by a ragtag group of scientists hiding out in the remains of the University of Pennsylvania. More to come.


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Synthetic-AI v4.4.5 Online…

Unit: SynthCapture v2.0 Online…

Assessing physical damage to conduit…

All systems functional…

Date: August 20, 2279

Location: 39°95'20"N, 75°19'08"W

New Objective Loaded: Capture Synthetic Serial No12557446B

Life-form at 5ft. Species check: Human. Unarmed. Female. Approximate age, 24. Hair color, 332619. Eye color, 89f2da. Race, Caucasian.

* * *

Maria examined the Synth carefully from afar, though she knew it would do her no harm up close. She'd made sure that Felix tied up this one extra tight after the last one escaped and wound up turning hostile on Marcus. As long as this one wasn't channeling a Super Mutant ghost, she should be fine. "We've got a live one, boys," she called pensively into the other room. "Monitor says it's a SynthCapture 2.0, running 4.4.5."

"The eggheads up at the Institute must be looking for another one of their precious Synths," said Felix, walking into the lab. Felix was a blond-haired man of about 6' tall and 26 years of age. Through years of digging through terminals, he'd become a self-made expert on the inner workings of computers, so when he came across Maria and her quest against the Institute, it was a blessing. Why she had such a vendetta against the guys, he neither knew nor cared, but what he knew is that if he got to dismantle this Synth, it would be his most up-to-date one yet.

"Must be why the sent this one out," Maria said, pouring over the information that was coming up on the terminal screen. Felix had hooked up a feed from the Synth's neural relay into the RobCo terminal and set it to auto-record, so Maria could look at her data all she wanted. "He's listening to us rather intently."

"Have anything to say, you bucket of bolts?" Felix asked, tapping on the glass of the protective meltdown shielding. Long story short, a few of the Synths that were captured by the ragtag team of scientists weren't exactly functional for a long time: fission batteries misfiring, neural relays set to overcharge. Bad things happen.

The Synth moved its mouth to no avail. Maria and Felix wouldn't be able to hear what it was saying, but they would be able to read it on the monitor. The blast shielding was entirely soundproof, and the only reason the Synth was able to understand what Maria and Felix were saying was because it had advanced tactiles that allowed it to notice minute vibrations. Came in handy when hunting down Stealth-programmed Synths. "Do you two have any information that could lead me to a renegade Synth? The last tracked location was to a place very near here."

Felix laughed. "Your buddy's been dismantled. Never could get used to dismantling Synths when they have their skin on. Too human," he sneered. "You don't deserve that skin, robot."

"Felix," Maria growled. "Leave the Synth alone. Remember the last time you egged on a Synth, it took your hostilities literally and attacked you. And this one's armed with more than a fork."

Felix passively stroked a line of four indentations in his cheek from one of his earlier encounters with a Synth. "Fine, I'll play nice with Synth," he mumbled and walked out of the room, preferring the company of more-dismantled Synths than Maria.

* * *

Blonde male, Felix, exits room. Brunette female, Maria, stands at monitor.

"Your acquaintance is less than helpful in my mission. He states that my target has been dismantled. Can you confirm that a Synthetic in a RobCo jumpsuit, possibly sentient, passed through this location?"

"Affirmative."

"In which cardinal direction did the Synthetic go from here?"

"It did not."

"It is still at this location?"

"Negative."

"If it did not leave and it is no longer on my tracer, the only two possibilities are that it has removed its tracking device or it has been decommissioned by external forces."

"Its tracking device has been removed. Not prior to decommissioning, however."

"You mean to say that the Synthetic was decommissioned and dismantled at this location, correct?"

"Affirmative."

"You are most helpful to my mission, Maria."

Terminating User Interface…

Initiating Sleep…

* * *

"Damn it!" Maria said, hitting her monitor. There was no good that could come from a sleeping Synth. No data, no conversation. It would come back online eventually, but it currently was running an intense numbers game in its head. She drew a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and pulled one out. It was a stressful enough today between getting the Synth online in the first place and having Marcus up and disappear. "I'm getting tired of this shit." She sat down on the cracked tile floor beside the Synth's shielding chamber and lit her cigarette.


End file.
